"Games of Thrones" star Jack Gleeson never expected the fame that would come once he landed the role on the hit HBO series. In actuality, he considers celebrity culture to be a "cannibalistic" and dehumanizing industry.

The 21-year-old, from Cork, Ireland, said it was naive of him to not realize what the future held once he signed onto the award-winning HBO project, which premiered in 2011. Suddenly, people were taking his photo and asking about his sock brand.

"It was an environment from which I instantly wanted to retreat," he admitted. "I detested the superficial elevation and commodification of it all, juxtaposed with the grotesque self-involvement it would sometimes draw out in me."

He said he actually found it odd that he himself found fame odd, because society reveres celebrity "almost religiously," with idols running the gamut from actors and pop singers to reality stars and "cheesemongers or something." The reverence has been welcomed and fostered by the public, even though "they're just people after all." With the rise of mass media, he added, celebrity became consumable and disposable for the masses.

"What's ironic is that you see celebrity endorsing things like, you know, musical tampons and appearing in advertisements for lavender scented teeth whitener or something. Wielding goods whose sell-by dates [will] ironically, probably, outlast theirs," Gleeson said. "Having one's image, and effectively life, democratized, dehumanizes and sometimes objectifies it into an entertainment product. What sort of valuation of the ego would one have once you've let it been preyed upon by the public for years and years? Perhaps, it becomes truly just skin and bones."